[The Kill List]—❈—09:: Rising Suspicions

It was 6:30 AM on Monday morning, and, just like it’d been yesterday, the first item on the order of business for the day was a full attendance team meeting.

Rory wasn’t surprised. Scuttlebutt (by which he meant he’d heard from Assault, who’d definitely heard from Battery, who [presumably] had heard from Miss Militia) was that last night, two capes, Glory Girl and a newbie, had caught Crusader, Fenja, and Menja, and capped it all off with ten crates of illegal Empire arms.

If news hadn’t reached the Empire already, it would soon, and then The Protectorate would have close to two dozen angry, racist capes to deal with.

This happening on the eve of Oni Lee’s mysterious (not to mention, incredibly suspicious) death wasn’t good either.

No one knew what was up with that, or why Lung seemed to be taking it so quietly, but they all knew that eventually the dragon would make noise, and the thought of that coinciding with The Empire trying to recover/avenge their capes worried Rory. It worried him a lot.

The Protectorate was not equipped to deal with that kind of threat.

As soon as the meeting began, there was no beating around the bush, instead, Director Piggot asked Miss Militia and Armsmaster to recount the events of the night before (for their sakes, Rory guessed, since she’d no doubt heard it all before now).

Rory listened intently as Miss Militia went through the incident clearly and consecutively, but even as he listened, he couldn’t help but observe her and Armsmaster.

They looked clean, attentive. 100% or damn near it.

Rory didn’t get it.

They’d been the ones on night duty last night, it was why they’d been the ones to respond to the incident that was the subject of their meeting today… well, that and because, apparently, Panacea had called Miss Militia directly when the incident had gone down.

Now, Rory had done night duty before, and he couldn’t imagine himself being in anywhere near good enough shape to be giving a report at 6:30 in the morning after it instead of being in bed.

Miss Militia at least made sense, she was a noctis cape; she didn’t need sleep. Armsmaster was the one who really freaked Rory out.

How did he keep going? Was he on some sort of tinker stimulant or something? Or, was it possible that the rumour going around that he’d replaced several of his organs with machine parts was actually true?

After all, thinking about it now, Rory had been with The Protectorate going on three years, and in all that time, he was pretty sure he’d never seen Armsmaster without his signature arm—

“—and that was when I realized that Black Leg was an open cape,” Miss Militia said, effectively shutting down Rory’s brain for a second.

“Wait, what?” at least three members of the table asked at once, and Rory was pretty sure he was one of them.

“The new cape,” Armsmaster took over, “he doesn’t wear a mask.”

A picture appeared on the huge flat TV on the wall of the room, showing a handsome boy who looked to be about Rory’s age in what was clearly a very expensive suit.

“He says his name’s Prince Vinsmoke, but there are no records of any such person ever existing anywhere,” Armsmaster continued.

“You looked him up?” Rory couldn’t help the accusatory tone in his voice.

“He’s the idiot who went out there without a mask,” Piggot said. “If he didn’t want people researching him, then he should have done like everyone else.”

“Question,” Assault said, raising his hand like he was in class, and when he had the attention of the room, he continued; “Who goes cape-ing without a mask and then gives a fake name when asked?”

“We don’t know it’s a fake name,” Miss Militia said, in a way that made Rory suspect that she’d tried to make this point before. Several times in fact.

Armsmaster’s and Piggot’s expressions all but confirmed his suspicion.

“Lots of people have had their histories all but wiped out thanks to the countless calamities hitting the world everywhere,” MM continued. “And even besides that, not everyone had a childhood that leaves a paper trail.”

“That may be,” Piggot said, “but the fact remains that this Black Leg is an unknown, and right now we can’t risk that.”

Rory frowned. Why did he feel like there was another conversation going on that he wasn’t privy to?

Assault raised his hand again. “Can you guys please share with the class? Cause there’s clearly something going on here,” he said.

Piggot scowled, though it was hard for Rory to tell if it was because of Assault’s words, or because that was simply her default expression.

Like seriously, at this point Rory was pretty sure that the woman would scowl if a joke amused her.

“As you all well know,” Piggot began, “Oni Lee was murdered early yesterday morning; someone, either a high rated stranger or mover, stabbed a finger through his bulletproof mask and into his brain.”

“And you think this kid who helped Glory Girl take down Empire capes is his killer?” Dauntless asked, his disbelief evident.

Rory had to agree; this guy didn’t exactly scream American Psycho.

…Although, to be fair, American Psycho hadn’t exactly screamed American Psycho either.

“I think,” Piggot said stressing the word, “that according to Glory Girl, this kid is a teleporter and maybe as strong as her. I think that by his own admission, he has a trump power that cancels out breaker states and also displayed a shaker power that rendered non-capes unconscious. I think that Black Leg is either angry enough, or insane enough, to go after the Empire without a mask despite being in the exact demographic of people they exist to hate. And, I think that I don’t believe in coincidences, and capes like that don’t just show up a day after one of the most hard to put down villains gets put down, without there being a correlation. That is what I think, Dauntless.”

Dauntless, along with near everyone else, was taken aback by The Director’s fierce reply, and an uneasy silence settled over the room for a moment.

Assault broke it. He was good at that, Rory had learnt.

“So, brute, mover, shaker, trump… What, is the kid a tinker too?” he asked.

“Thinker actually,” Armsmaster corrected.

Assault blinked. “Wait, seriously? I was joking.”

“It’s unconfirmed,” the tinker allowed, “but according to Glory Girl, Black Leg has some sort of thinker power that made him able to keep tabs on a building across the street, with his back turned and engaged in conversation. Didn’t seem like he knew what exactly was going on inside though?”

“So, not like superhearing, but more of a people sense?” Velocity asked.

“Perhaps,” Armsmaster said.

Everyone digested that for a minute, and this time, it was Battery who broke the silence.

“I hate to say it, but, more and more this Black Leg seems to fit the bill for the Oni Lee murder; a power that lets him keep track of people, teleportation, and superstrength.”

“We don’t go after people because they fit the bill, Battery,” Miss Militia said, tone clipped. “We do it because we have incontrovertible proof.”

“No one is going after anybody,” Director Piggot said, before Battery could speak in her defense. “But we are going to keep an eye out for—and on—Black Leg.”

“Want us to give the Wards pitch if we see him?” Velocity asked.

“Nothing’s likely to come of it, seeing as he’s an open cape and already made a connection with New Wave, but sure, don’t see why not.”

“And if he turns out to be our killer?” Assault asked carefully.

Piggot thought about it. “We’ll burn that bridge when we get to it,” she decided finally. “For now, let’s focus on the more pressing matter of the Empire.”

The meeting continued for almost thirty minutes more, and by the end of it, Rory barely remembered Black Leg as anything more than a curiosity.

—❈——❈——❈—

A/N:: next chapter, we get back to Black Leg killing people. For a good cause.